Wagner James Au reports on virtual worlds, VR & Internet culture

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Nexeus' Venture: Open Source Content For The Metaverse

Nexeus Fatale, a veteran SL disc jockey, content creator, and community leader (he's one of the lead organizers of the Second Life Community Convention) has a new venture: The Avaverse, a repository of free virtual content that comes with open source/Creative Commons licensing for use in SL and ultimately other virtual worlds. (First item available: animation files optimized for creating Second Life avatar expresions.) The goal, he writes, is "to provide quality, open, freely distributable content online" in a way that fosters innovation, just as the larger Internet benefits from open standards. Launched late last week, it's a project that's perfectly timed to Linden's official announcement of SL-to-Open Sim interoperability, today. The question of course, is how Avaverse will function in an internal market where entrepeneurs are fiercely protective of their proprietary content (occasionally over-much, some may say.) Are Second Life's content creators ready for open standards in their virtual economy?

I have to say, as a content creator, I welcome the open source libraries of animation, texture, objects, etc. I know many in world creators spend a lot of time creating their stuff.

I also know a lot of creators who are enraged at the idea of free content don't mind doing a Google image search for the perfect texture that they don't own.

There's been plenty of times when I've been constructing some item I need to make for whatever purpose and I get annoyed that I need to go make some little animation like a wave or a laugh. Consider some things are nuts and bolts in SL. Would it not suck to have to create your own bolts in RL when building something?

Osprey raises an interesting point in my mind: Why would anyone name their SL project "Avaverse"? Are they av averse (averse to avatars), that is, strongly opposed to avatars? I suspect not, but their name says otherwise. Sigh.

If the ported avatar did not look like the same avatar (but only a "ruth'), in exactly what sense was the avatar ported? It sounds like the user just logged into a new world with a new avatar--only the names were not changed?

Thanks for the attention to the project Hamlet! It's very much appreciated!

Concerning the CC license, when I started this project I looked around at the best possible way to make the rules of how to use this clear; with so many different options (or not implicitly stating), I really wanted to use something that everyone is familiar with to get past many of the initial questions and concerns. While I recognize that CC may not be the best thing since sliced bread, I've yet to find something better to achieve the goal of the project. I felt that by using CC, I got past the open/open source/copyright issue because in a way it addresses all three.

@Osprey @Troy @Barbarra Your right, saying Avaverse is a bit funny. The name came from the combination of Avatar Verse, as I was trying to explain to someone a while ago the difference between the metaverse (which in my opinion relates strictly to virtual worlds) and that of our virtual represenations across virtual worlds, forums, social media, etc, etc. While the phrase did not stick, the name, I felt, was best suited. A resource of content for avatars. There for "avaverse".